Author: Grow Trains

Taking a train may not give us life or liberty, but, ah… it’s a great way to pursue happiness. My trip last week on the Empire Builder reminded me that trains are the best way to enjoy our spacious skies, amber waves of grain, and purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!

No matter what your political beliefs are, we need your help to keep the trains running.

Several passenger rail advocates were fortunate to meet with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) in April while we were at the National Association of Railroad Passengers meeting in Washington, DC.

Of course, not everyone has the opportunity to meet with Congressional representatives in person, but Rep. Jayapal has some suggestions, taken from a Facebook Live interview published in Crosscut.

Is the new Resistbot app [which allows a person to text a message and have it show up in a congressional member’s office as a fax] a good way for the public to provide feedback?

Our mailroom tells our office we get the most mail of any congressional district in the country. I think it’s something like 80,000 phone calls, emails and letters that we have received. The most effective thing is when we get a personal message or person’s story. It doesn’t mean you can’t use Resistbot with a standard message. But if you take that standard message and add something that is personal to you and why it important to you, it really makes a big difference. If we see it as part of a campaign, it probably doesn’t have as much impact.

Congress is rejecting the president’s attempt to kill our national rail passenger network. That’s very good news. Our elected representatives, from both sides of the aisle, recognize the importance of the rail services in their community — what the National Association of Railroad Passengers calls “My Town, My Train.”

But NARP knows that saving the existing network is not enough. America needs to fix the hundred-year backlog of underinvestment, fill the holes in today’s skeletal system, and add service in places that haven’t seen a train in years. That will take funding, equipment and determination.

What should be the priorities? One of NARP’s goals is to “Put 80% of Americans within 25 miles of a rail station by 2035.” To make that happen, we’ll need massive support, not only in DC, and also in state legislatures, city councils, and community groups around the nation. We know it can be done: witness the enormous support we’ve seen for restoration of Gulf Coast service, the daily Cardinal, and the Colorado ski train.

But to meet this goal, we need a long-term, large commitment to a passenger rail vision. One wonders sometimes whether anyone in Washington, DC, these days has the ability to pursue such a vision, but if the baby boomers have failed, the next generations will succeed.

NARP members should read the group’s Strategic Plan. And if you’re skeptical that it can be made to happen, well, that’s understandable–but with your help, and the help of younger people, we can make “A Connected America” happen.

This fall, NARP will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a large event called RailNation Chicago. Please join us, and bring your friends and family–we can begin to build a rail future for the next generation.

Sometimes you will see information from chapters of the National Association of Railroad Passengers posted in train stations. You don’t see this at [Washington] Union Station, but you do at Penn Station in Baltimore (at least back when I used to ride MARC to Baltimore a few days each week for work).
—Richard Layman

I first learned about NARP from a newsletter posted on a bulletin board in Baltimore’s Penn Station in 1977. Even in this age of electronic and social media, print materials reach people who might not find out about our advocacy any other way.

Every once in a while, someone will post that they’re tired of politics, and just want to talk about trains. But are these folks naive? Whether they like to ride trains, or watch them roll by, how do they expect service to survive without the hard work that’s done every day in Washington, DC, by organizations like the National Association of Railroad Passengers, and by state advocacy groups in state capitols and with local elected officials?

I think most of us would agree that the current political environment can be poisonous and hyper-partisan. But support for passenger rail service is still one of the few subjects that finds support on both sides of the aisle….if you and I keep telling our elected representatives that passenger rail is important.

Please join NARP for our annual “Day On the Hill” if you can make it to DC in a couple of weeks. And if you can’t, contact your elected representatives, and show them how passenger rail affects your community.

Working together, we can make sure that the “Train Tree” stays healthy and growing!

Have you ever looked at the profiles of your friends on social media in passenger train groups? The other groups they belong to? The pages they like? The posts they make? You might be surprised at the range of political beliefs in the Amtrak communities on Facebook.

So don’t let the pundits make unwarranted and incorrect assumptions about the level of support for passenger rail. It’s strong, and continues to get stronger.

But we need to make our voices heard, in Washington, DC, and beyond–especially in our state legislatures, since a large amount of passenger train service is paid for by the states.

And do you want more service, or service in places where it’s lacking? That will only happen from the bottom up — if we push our local councils, business groups, and mayors to remind the legislators and Congressional representatives how important passenger rail is to the health and development of our local communities.

There are many ways that all of us can work to improve passenger rail. Please check this list. Let’s all work together to keep trains on track!

Charlie Hamilton, NARP Council Rep. at Large (WA), is part of a team asking for input from us and others on the topic of Amtrak trains, stations, and passenger services being ADA compliant for those traveling passengers that may have limited mobility or other physical disabilities. These items can also include concerns that have been addressed through current ADA guidelines but which could be improved.

For example, Stephanie Weber, NARP Council Rep. (WA), offered the concern of passengers with impaired hearing having a difficult time understanding station announcements given by Amtrak employees. Also, there are stations that don’t have a visual train status information board for those to read that are unable to hear a PA system.

At your earliest convenience, if you have ADA topics relating to Amtrak trains, stations, and services offered that should be addressed, please contact us. Be specific so Charlie can accurately present your suggestions/concerns. Should you have any questions, please contact Charlie Hamilton.

UPDATE: Thanks so much for everyone’s continued input. We are collecting comments here, and in a number of other locations:

Representative Mica (R-FL7) has been known for micro-managing Amtrak for several years, but he is now facing a real struggle in his bid for re-election.

The National Association of Railroad Passengers has a list of local transit measures on their website here, but they can’t endorse candidates because of their 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. If anyone knows of candidates who are worthy of endorsement by passenger rail supporters, please post them here or on the Grow Trains Facebook page.

Don’t forget to vote for passenger rail supporters in the Senate, the House, in state legislatures, and locally!

Amtrak employees have a responsibility to report suspicious activities to the appropriate authorities.

But according to the Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice, some transportation employees (including Amtrak employees) have been participating in a poorly-managed Drug Enforcement Agency program that pays “tipsters” for information with very little accountability.

But the report indicates that the DEA is as interested in cash as it is in drugs, thus potentially leading to questionable searches. It’s well-known in the train-riding community that such incidents happen frequently in certain places.

Balancing passenger safety with the needs of law enforcement is a tricky proposition at best. But this balance needs to be decided upon in the light of day.